Why I hate this movie
It's not the fact that it's too dark. Dickens wrote this as a ghost story. It's the fact that the dark humor overtakes the narrative and is dark to be dark. The character development is forced and not even believed. During the credits, the guy is STILL an *beep* The comedy is so over the top that it distracts from the material. The scene where this movie became one of the worst was when the employee came back into the office with a gun. It blurred the line to who was the good guy and bad guy and a "okay, here's your job back won't cut it". If they wanted to do this, then cut the redeemability part of the film all together.
At least with the Gremlins franchise, you knew the tone and what you were getting.
Imo, this is one of the worst Christmas films out there.